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Who Has Authority?

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Max Weber, a German sociologist, defined power and authority in the following manner: power is the ability to exercise one’s will over others, while authority refers to accepted power; that is, power that people agree to follow. Authority, according to Weber, can be traditional (e.g., a parent), charismatic (e.g., Martin Luther King Jr.) or legal (e.g., the Canadian government). The burning questions in today’s text are: What is the relationship between power and authority? Who has authority to act?